The Rose - Council of Guardians (c)
Guide to getting started in the lands of New Corinthia
by Warren D. Johnson
Runtime Computing
Last updated: March 30, 1998

Introduction.

      Welcome to the realms of New Corinthia!  As a young adventurer
your goal is to become a member of the famed Council of Guardians.  The
quest to become a member of the Council of Guardians is not an easy one!
You must endure many hardships and challenges and must pass the thirty
levels of promotion before you will even be considered for membership.
      You begin your adventure in Imperial City.  Imperial City is
situated in the center of the island of New Corinthia.  It is home to
Imperial Castle and to many useful shops and stores as well as an
assortment of training centers and attribute enhancement centers.
Imperial City will serve as a home base of operations for much of your
gameplay as it has all the essentials one requires for a comfortable
living including an equipment store, an armory, a weaponsmith, a
bowsmith, a temple for healing and resurrection and an assortment of
places to enhance your mental and bodily attributes and abilities.  Once
you've achieved a significant amount of advancement and have become
stronger and more experienced you will adventure out into the expanse of
the realms.  But, before you become a ferocious warrior, or a cunning
gypsy, let us begin with the essentials.

Moving about

      Moving about is accomplished through the issuance of directional
commands such as "north", "south" or simply "n" or "s".  To move north
you would type "north" or "n".  To move south you would type "south" or
"s".  Important to note that an exit must exist in that direction for
you to progress that way.  Associated with each movement is a cost in
points which are deducted from your "movement points".  Once your
movement points have reached 0 you will be unable to move.  Your
movement points regenerate at a rate appropriate to your walk of life
and your bodily health.


Communications.

Gossip - The Rose has maintains a single channel of conversation which
is broadcast to all players in the game.  This is known as the global
gossip channel.   Sporadically, as people use the gossip channel,
messages will appear on your screen much like "Sysop gossips: Hi
all!".  This message is from Sysop and states :Hi all!.  To use the
global gossip channel you must use the gossip character (set by default
to " , " comma) and then your message.  For example, ",hi all!" would
print the message "Hi all" over the global gossip channel.  The
character to use the gossip channel is configurable so you if you are
having trouble using the gossip channel you may wish to find out what
the current gossip character is set to.  To find out what it is set to,
issue the command "gossip".  You may shut off your gossip channel by
typing ",off" during which you will receive no messages and you may turn
it on by typing ",on".

Speech - To talk to those in your room, simply type what you wish to
say.  If you are not typing a command specific to the game your speech
will be conveyed to those in the room.

Whispers - Whispers in the game are messages sent to a player despite
her location in the game.  They are rather like a "page" which occurs
solely within the game. To whisper to someone use the whisper character
directly followed by the player's name and than the message as such:
/Sysop hihi.  As the whisper character is configurable, you may wish to
check what it is currently set to by using the "whisper" command.

Astral Channels  - Astral channels are much akin to the global chatter
channels that you are used to on the BBS.  By typing the astral
character, followed by a message you are able to speak to those tuned
into your channel.  For example, suppose you are currently tuned to
channel 1023 and assuming the astral character is "-", a hyphen, you
would type: -hi all and those on your channel would see "Astral [777]
Sysop: hi all".  To tune to a different channel simply type the astral
character followed by a channel number in the range of 1 - 30000.  For
example, "-1033" would tune you into channel 1033.  Since the astral
character is configurable you may wish to check what it is currently set
to by using the "astral" command.

Who is in the game - You may check to see who is currently playing by
typing the "pl" or "who" commands at the prompt.  You will be given a
list of player names but not user-ids.

Getting help

Basic help system: You may access help on a number of topics from within
the game by typing "help [topic keyword]".  We have done our best to
provide several keywords which will lead you to a desired topic.  The
basic help system is also available from the main menu.  If  you are
having trouble finding the a help topic which satisfies your question
you may wish to exit to the main menu and use the advanced topic search
engine.  (See below)

Advanced topic search:  If you are unsure of which help topic you wish
to read about or you are unsure as to what keyword will bring you to a
help topic you may wish to use the advanced topic search.  The advanced
topic search takes a word or phrase from you and searches through all
available help topics for entries which contain that word or phrase.
For example, if you searched on the word "combat" you would get every
entry which mentions the word combat.  Certain words will not be allowed
in the topic search such as "a" and "an" or "the" and "it" due to their
generic nature and widespread usage.

Note:  If you feel there is a help  topic you would like to see in the
help menu please feel free to send a piece of mail to info@rosecog.com

Your life story....

      Your character in the game has many facets and intricacies.  All
players have strengths and weaknesses.  Your relative rating to others
is handled by assigning you a number or statistic for each of your
attributes.  The higher the number the better.  For example, a player
with a strength rating of 50 is considered to be stronger than a player
with a strength rating of 30.  To see your relative strengths and
weaknesses you may use the "stat" command.  Let us go over briefly what
you see on your character's stat sheet.

Level advancement and promotion

      Your persona's relative strength is measured in experience levels.
You begin as a level 1 character and may advance as high as level 30
(or perhaps higher...).  To advance to the next level you must have
accumulated a certain amount of experience through either combat or the
successful completion of tasks or quests.  A quest is a task or set of
tasks which you are called upon to complete in the name of the council
or in the name of your own livelihood.  As you adventure and become more
in tune with the game,  quests will be made available to you.  At
certain points in your progression through the levels the Council of
Guardians will require you to have proven your questing abilities by
accumulating a certain amount of quest points before being eligible for
level advancement.  Don't worry though, this requirement will not be
imposed upon you until your promotion from level 5 to level 6.  It is
important to remember that experience may be gained through the
successful completion of quests as well as through combat.
      In order to promote to the next level of experience you must
locate an Adventurer's guild and issue the command "promote".  The
guildmaster will notify you of whether your application for promotion
has been accepted or denied.  If you are denied it may be for several
reasons.  Promotion has a monetary cost.  It will cost you an amount of
silvers per level to promote.  Promotion requires a certain amount of
experience points earned.  Sometimes promotion may require other factors
to be in place.  The game keeps track of your total amount of experience
points and the total amount of experience points required for next level
as well as the amount of silver it will cost you to promote.  To glean
this information from the game simply type the "ep" or "experience"
command.

Walk of life or disposition and skills

      The Rose - Council of Guardians strays from the traditional view
of fantasy role playing by allowing players to shape their skills and
talents as they see fit.  In many role playing games, your character is
constrained to performing certain tasks based on his character class.
For example, more often than not, Warriors are allowed only the
intricacies of combat and are deprived of the benefits of magical spell
casting.  In the same vein, often Mages are allowed only the intricacies
of spell casting while they are deprived of the skills of thievery.  In
The Rose, players may develop their skill in any or all of the fields
available.  The difference comes in your aptitude at learning the
different skills.  A warrior will learn to swing a longsword faster and
more economically than he will learn to cast a healing spell while a
priest will learn to cast a healing spell faster and more economically
than swing a longsword.  Your aptitude is dictated by your walk of life,
sometimes called your disposition or profession.
      At the time of character generation, the user is asked to chose a
walk of life or disposition for his character to follow.  Six
dispositions exist in the realms ranging from warrior and mage, to gypsy
and scholar.  Your walk of life will influence heavily how quickly you
may learn certain skills and proficiencies.  If you wish to create a
character that is dedicated to hand to hand combat entirely, you may
wish to use the warrior walk of life.  If you wish to create a character
dedicated to the arts of healing you may wish to use a priestly caste
character.  Walk of life is a very important decision and the pro's and
cons of each should be weighed heavily before choosing.

Manipulating items:


Picking up and dropping items; checking your possessions

      It is evident that you will need to procure things along your
journeys to aid in your success.  To pick an item up from the floor
simply issue the "get" command followed by the item name (partial name
may suffice); for example: "get dagger" or "get dag".  To see what items
you currently possess you may type "I" or "inv" at any time.  To drop an
item you possess simply issue the "drop" command followed by the item
name; for example: "drop dagger" or "drop dag".  You may not drop an
item if you are wearing it on your body (for example, a cloak) or you
are wielding it as a weapon.
      Scattered thoroughly about the realms are a variety of shops to
purchase items.  When you are in a shop, typing the command "list" will
list the items available to you in the shop and their prices.  It is
important to note that your charisma affects what you pay for items.  To
examine an item that is for sale simply type: "look" followed by the
item name.  If the item is in stock you will receive a description of
the item as well as it's relative weight and your ability or lack
thereof to wield the item as a weapon or wear it as a piece of armor.
To sell an item simply type "sell" followed by the item name; for
example "sell robe" or "sell ro".

Equipping pieces of armor and wield weapons for combat

      Before you may use a weapon in combat, you must "arm" the weapon.
For example, "arm dagger" (or "arm dag") will place the dagger (provided
you have one) into your fighting hand readying it for immediate usage in
combat.  If you no longer wish to wield a weapon you use the "disarm"
command.  Please note that the "disarm" command is only one word and it
assumes you are speaking of the weapon in your fighting hand.  You may
only equip one weapon at any given time and there are weapons which
require two hands for proper usage (thus prohibiting the usage of a
shield which requires a hand free).   You will not be able to wield all
weapons initially and must build up your melee weaponry skill in order
to wield the more powerful weapons.
      Armor offers protection against the evils of the world.  However,
before it is of any use you must wear it.  Armor is worn on several
locations on the body.  The locations range from torso and cloak
(covering the whole body) to boots and helmet.  When calculating your
defense based on your armor usage, all pieces are taken into account.
To wear a piece of armor simply issue the "wear" command followed by the
piece of armor's name.  For example, you may type "wear leather vest" to
wear the leather vest about your torso.  Shields count as a piece of
armor and require a free hand to use.  You will not be able to wear all
types of armor initially and must build up your armor usage skill in
order to wear the more protective pieces of armor.

Training your skills, proficiencies, body and mind:

Introduction to skills

      All players have a certain measure of skill in many different
areas.  Not all players will begin with all skills and not all players
will be able to advance to perfection in all areas but each player may
learn each skill for the most part.  Skills, referred to synonymously as
proficiencies, range from combat oriented such as melee weaponry, armor
usage and defensive dodge, to magical such as Sphere of Life and sphere
of forces, and even as far as intellectual such as herpitology (study of
dragons) and vitonecrology (intellectual study of the undead).  All
players begin with a base understanding of many skills and a slight
advantage in a few of them.  For example, mages begin with a slight
advantage in the sphere of life magics while warriors begin with a
slight advantage in the melee weaponry proficiency.  Some skills
directly influence actions in the game (for example, it is obvious that
the higher melee weaponry skill you possess, the better weapons you may
use and the more often you are successful in combat) while others are
not as visibly effective (for example, vitonecrology comes into play
when you combat the undead (skeletons, zombies etc).  To view which
skills you have use the command "skills".

Training your skills

      Scattered about the realms in many shapes and forms are
proficiency training centers.  Each proficiency training center has the
ability to train exactly one proficiency.  If you are in a proficiency
training center use the command "inquire" to find out which proficiency
is trained at that location as well as relative costs involved.  Each
player has a cache of development points which can be checked by issuing
the "stat" command. In order to learn better how skills are trained let
us use a warrior as an example.  A warrior trudges into the melee
weaponry training center.  Typing, "inquire" he finds that "the art of
melee weaponry" is trained here.  He also finds out that he must spend 3
of his "precious" development points to train 1 point in his melee
weaponry skill.  He also finds out that he must spend 125 silvers, per
point trained, for associated training fees and equipment.  Looking to
his stat sheet he sees he has well over 100 development points left and
decides he wants to spend only 3 of them at this moment.  The warrior
issues the command "train" and the instructor removes 3 of his
development points, 125 silver and the warrior is granted 1 additional
point in his melee weaponry skill.  Some training centers will require
you to have fulfilled an obligation before you are able to use the
facilities.

Enhancing your bodily and mental attributes

      Scattered about the realms are attribute enhancement centers.
These centers allow you to trade your attribute points for increases to
your bodily and mental statistics.  To find out if you are in such a
center use the command "attinfo".  If you are in an attribute training
center you will be told which attribute is trained at this location and
the relative costs involved.  To enhance a bodily or mental attribute
one point you must spend one point of your attribute points and pay the
center a certain amount of silvers.   The command syntax to enhance a
bodily attribute is "enhance [attribute points to spend]".  Most centers
are only capable of advancing you to a certain point and it is up to you
to find the few centers that will help you train your attributes to the
maximum of their potential.

Initial combat

Arenas: Your first altercations should take place at one of the three
arenas within the city limits.  Dubbed the newbie arena, Tasque Arena
is located directly north of your starting point.  The Torith Arena is
northwest of Imperial square and the Tenten Arena is west from the town
square and proximate to the warrior's guild.  Once you find an arena you
may issue the "ring gong" command.  An opponent will be summoned and begin
to combat with you.  You will be delayed for three seconds after you
ring the great gong so be prepared.  More advanced arenas are available
in different areas of the realm but they cost money to use.

healing:  Damage done to players heals at a rate proportional to their
constitution and proficiency in the skill of "natural healing".  If this
is to slow for you, than there are other options:  players may cast
healing spells on each other, players may drink healing potions or
players may find a healer (the wise woman in the eastern part of
Imperial City is good for this) and request a healing from them.  We
facilitate the "buy a heal" concept by having monsters cast spells on
you if you request them.  For example, if you find the wise woman, use
the "greet" command to find out which spells she knows how to cast (i.e.
greet wise).  The wise woman in Imperial City has the "minheal" spell.
She will cast the spell on you for a small fee.  To purchase the casting
you might type "request minheal wise".  If you look hard enough you may
even find someone whom you can request a shield spell or resistance
spell from.  Players who are not in any position to request spell castings
may use the "rest" command.  The rest command will increase your healing
rate after approximately 12 seconds of resting.

promotion: At any time, typing "experience" will reveal your current
amount of experience points, how many experience points you require
before your next level promotion and how much silver the promotion will
cost you.  When you have accumulated enough experience points typing
"experience" will tell you that you are now qualified for your next
level promotion.  In order to promote you must find a guild (there is
one located in the northwestern corner of Imperial Square) and use the
"promote" command.  If you are qualified for promotion you will be given
a level promotion which includes extra hitpoints, mana points, attribute
points and development points.  You will find that the first 5-10 levels
are easily earned.  The game has been created in this fashion to allow
you to get into the game quickly without spending years building up a
first level character.

Quests, questing and proving your ability to do something besides script

The Council of Guardians has many criterion by which they judge their
applicants.  One of the most important criteria is your ability to go
about the world and solve puzzles.  In this game, not only is questing
important, it is ESSENTIAL to your progression.  Each player has a
running tally of quest points.  A certain number of quest points are
issued to you upon successful completion of a set of tasks or quest.
You will not be allowed to progress past a certain level without having
accumulated a certain amount of quest points (currently, these
restrictions are found at level 5, 10 and 15).  For a listing of quests
and some hints as to what to do, you may wish to explore the Quest
Corridors under Imperial City's Guild.  Look around and make mental
notes of the room descriptions.  Many room descriptions will detail what
you must accomplish on these quests.  Notice in the descriptions that
there are words ENTIRELY IN CAPS.  Write those down.


Misc notes

I'm afraid our tour of New Corinthia has ended however I will leave you
with some hints to help you get by.
1) Conserve money.  You will find that although you start with a lot of
gold and silver, you will spend it fast.
2) Enhance your attributes and skills early on as they will help you
survive in this world.
3) If you become hungry or thirsty, find your way to a tavern and "order
food" or "order drink".  This becomes cumbersome on long adventures away
from the city so make sure to stop off at Imperial Sundries and
Equipment and pick up a few rations of food and water.
4) Before you go adventuring buy yourself a lantern or a few torches
because while the city is well lit, the rest of the world is not.
5) Light required to see in a room varies.  Some rooms are darker than
others so you may have to have a larger light source or multiple light
sources lit to see your way through a room safely.  Lanterns are always
a good bet.
6) Remember that you can move as soon as your action timer is 0.  Moving
out of a room after attacking, waiting off the attack delay, and moving
back in is a favored tactic among adventurers.
7) If you attack shopkeepers you will be labeled a criminal and will not
be able to train, promote, buy, sell, appraise, or anything until much
time has passed.  However, there are a few things in the game that
require you to be a criminal before you may make use of them.
8) Purchase armor before you do ANY combat.  Armor is essential and you
will find that not using any is a really, really bad idea.

